Rick Santelli stands up for real capitalism

This is great to hear. A floor trader gets pissed off about the stimulus package and bailouts, and he calls out everyone in Washington for propping up bad business practices. Good to hear that some businesspeople still have some principles and don't all want to suckle the teat.

Thank you mercury. I was going to post this tomorrow in a topic about disenfranchisement in the American populace. What this guy is yelling about is the beginning of what will soon become a growing discontent in the country.

Thank you mercury. I was going to post this tomorrow in a topic about disenfranchisement in the American populace. What this guy is yelling about is the beginning of what will soon become a growing discontent in the country.

I was calling for the Heritage Foundation at my most recent job, and A LOT of those people were very upset about the bailouts and pissed about the Bush Administration's spending and abandonment of free market principles. Most of these people HATE Bill Clinton, but will grudgingly admit that he was actually better on free trade and balancing the budget. There are still people who believe in a (mostly) free market in this country, and they are starting to wake up. Their pockets are being picked to pay people who can't run a business properly.

The big screw-up lay in letting housing lenders bundle and commoditize mortages as investment instruments. This had several negative ramifications:

It gave banks a motivation to lend that wasn't linked to the housing market.

Consequently, it drove housing prices up artificially.

It disconnected risk from reward at the mortgage office level; why should banks care if Joe Schmoe can make his payments? They aren't holding the note... they passed it on to some big investment bank.

Because housing prices were driven upward, housing became less affordable across the board. Unless and until the market is allowed to correct itself in the absence of those commoditized mortgage investment instruments, housing will remain artificially expensive and the real estate market will remain flat as a pancake. There are only two ways for housing prices to drop: 1) people voluntarily resell at a lower price than they bought their house for, or 2) banks have to be allowed to foreclose. Because 1 will never happen, 2 is the last resort.

Foreclosure is a bitter pill to swallow, I know, but the alternative is a decade or more of financial malaise and people stuffing money in their mattresses instead of putting it in the bank.

The big screw-up lay in letting housing lenders bundle and commoditize mortages as investment instruments. This had several negative ramifications:

It gave banks a motivation to lend that wasn't linked to the housing market.

Consequently, it drove housing prices up artificially.

It disconnected risk from reward at the mortgage office level; why should banks care if Joe Schmoe can make his payments? They aren't holding the note... they passed it on to some big investment bank.

Because housing prices were driven upward, housing became less affordable across the board. Unless and until the market is allowed to correct itself in the absence of those commoditized mortgage investment instruments, housing will remain artificially expensive and the real estate market will remain flat as a pancake. There are only two ways for housing prices to drop: 1) people voluntarily resell at a lower price than they bought their house for, or 2) banks have to be allowed to foreclose. Because 1 will never happen, 2 is the last resort.

Foreclosure is a bitter pill to swallow, I know, but the alternative is a decade or more of financial malaise and people stuffing money in their mattresses instead of putting it in the bank.

Banks hate foreclosing, too, because it usually happens when the general economy (and, by extension, housing prices) fall, so they are sitting there with real estate that is worth less than it was before they put out the mortgage to the foreclosee. That's how sick this market was: people who bought houses that were outrageously expensive for them, given their active income generation were simply leaving once their ARMs kicked in, and leaving the keys to the house in the mailbox. These were not apartments. These were the HOMES for which they were paying mortgages. Seriously, what the fuck were the lenders thinking?

P.S. This was broken down nicely to me recently: "If you make $40,000 a year, you CANNOT afford a $400,000 house, no matter where it's located or what's the economy is like." You'd think that would be common sense (I knew that, and I've never owned real estate in my life), but it's apparently not.

Banks hate foreclosing, too, because it usually happens when the general economy (and, by extension, housing prices) fall, so they are sitting there with real estate that is worth less than it was before they put out the mortgage to the foreclosee. That's how sick this market was: people who bought houses that were outrageously expensive for them, given their active income generation were simply leaving once their ARMs kicked in, and leaving the keys to the house in the mailbox. These were not apartments. These were the HOMES for which they were paying mortgages. Seriously, what the fuck were the lenders thinking?

P.S. This was broken down nicely to me recently: "If you make $40,000 a year, you CANNOT afford a $400,000 house, no matter where it's located or what's the economy is like." You'd think that would be common sense (I knew that, and I've never owned real estate in my life), but it's apparently not.

Nope. Common sense seems to die wherever the government comes and lays its hand down. Everything the government has done and is doing is nonsensical, and is encouraging more of the nonsense. The free market adheres to common sense principles, sustainable practices, and efficiency when the government does not interfere. When the government interferes, they begin to do things that DON'T MAKE SENSE. Common sense is all but dead and gone in this country...

Nope. Common sense seems to die wherever the government comes and lays its hand down. Everything the government has done and is doing is nonsensical, and is encouraging more of the nonsense. The free market adheres to common sense principles, sustainable practices, and efficiency when the government does not interfere. When the government interferes, they begin to do things that DON'T MAKE SENSE. Common sense is all but dead and gone in this country...

Pardon me, but it seems to me that mortgage commoditization happened not because of government regulation, but because of the lack of government regulation.

Local banking should be a utility function period, the way it was in 1975.